The weather had turned a bit chilly and windy. Luckily we were just outside briefly for the parking lot and hurried on inside to pick out some visitor maps and pamphlets. I also took the opportunity to buy a couple of small souvenirs.

With maps in hand, we headed towards Canberra Centre for our first stop – food and shopping. We parked the car and wandered up and down the streets to see what we might fancy for a late lunch. There were SO many options yet it was hard to decide. I mean, really… after a fantastic homemade Persian meal the night before, there really wasn’t much that could compete with that! 😉

Keeping in mind that we had some shopping to tackle before leaving the mall, we decided to step into a place called Babar Cafe and Bar. The atmosphere looked decent and there were a few tables of people. It was well beyond the regular lunch hour so we did not expect to see hordes of people eating anyways. We were greeted by a friendly girl at the bar who was busy making drinks. We waited for a few minutes before we were seated by another hostess.

And then.. we waited and waited and waited. I cannot remember if they even gave us menus or even water immediately but I do remember it took what felt like eternity for someone to take our order. V and I are pretty easy-going people overall. I also understand that people be busy assisting other customers or dealing with other things… but when there are only a few tables of people and I try to get the attention of the server to no avail. AND from my vantage point, I could see the server in the back room chatting it up with another girl about either the weekend plans or the last social event one of them went to… it makes me just a little annoyed.

Eventually we got someone’s attention. I seem to recall getting up and politely asking for service .. like asking for water or something. When the person came by, we placed our orders. V and I each ordered a pasta.

The pasta itself seemed pretty average to me. Unfortunately the service was disappointing as we had to wait a long time for anything and everything. I guess with the amount of eating out V and I were doing, we would eventually come across some disappointing service somewhere. It says a lot when all I can remember is waiting and waiting and more waiting…